But how is the concept enabled?  

Let’s look at that.

chiliZ and the Socios.com platform

Through Socios.com platform, chiliZ intends to turn 2.2+ billion gamers, 380+ million esports fans and more than a billion football fans from mere spectators to influencers and decision makers. While they are starting with football, they intend to cover more sports in the future. Cricket is one such sport which is visible on the horizon and many more.  

True to their core, chiliZ will be providing a cryptocurrency and blockchain solution, from where a fan can use his tokens to cast his vote towards a decision. In their own words, chiliZ whitepaper talks about their motivation as follows:

Our motivation: To turn the world’s billions of sports, esports and gaming fans from spectators into influencers. 

The power of decision making was quite centralized till now with the owners of teams (or game developers) and yet there was clear realization that it is the fans who really makes a team or game popular. As such, though team owners and game makers were ready to transfer some portion of decision making to fans, there was no robust system to enable this. This is where chiliZ helps by bringing the Socios.com platform and makes the delegation of decision making power to fans world-wide. 

Let’s look at the platform closely.

The Socios.com platform

We know that chiliZ powers the Socios.com platform deploying user tokenized voting rights which are executed through smart contracts. The idea is so interesting that it turns the team management exercise into an entertainment value for fans because of the gamifying of voting rights into a trading and re-trading experience. The platform can power existing and future sports and esports team.  

Here’s an overview of the Socios.com Platform.

The token itself is an Ethereum based ERC-20 token. The choice of Ethereum is quite easy to understand from the standpoint of robustness, practicality, and stability of the platform. A general study of all of the ICOs of 2017 shows that most of the solutions had been built on the Ethereum platform as it was future proof. chiliZ too is an Ethereum based token, therefore. The way the token will function for both users and partners is as follows: 

Users 

To be the currency to be used on the Socios.com platform to act as a decision-making engine for the fans and allowing them to effectively influence their favorite team with complete integrity.  

Partner Organizations 

To create and share revenue generated via the Socios.com platform in a fair and transparent manner.

There are other checks and balances thought-through too. For example, to ensure integrity, a permissioned instance of the Ethereum blockchain is run by Socios. This is where every team, game, league and their crowd-voting mechanism is hosted. The side chain will also reduce the transaction cost, as it will be run on Proof of Authority consensus mechanism as opposed to the Proof of Work mechanism on the main chain. The sidechain is publicly auditable thus remaining scalable and yet maintaining the integrity of operations.  

Take a look at the platform architecture:

But will this concept of fans influenced teams work? Yes, it will. The concept itself has existed for some time but could not scale up because of the lack of a dependable and robust underlying platform. Talking about Europe, teams like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, FC Porto, and SL Benfica were partly owned and managed by fans to vote and elect their respective team’s board members and leaders. This kept the monopolistic voting rights in check and everybody had a hand in choosing the top management. Such a concept was also seen in North America, where the Green Bay Packers were the only NFL team to be owned by more than 360 thousand stakeholders. Also, no single stakeholder could own more than 4% of the team’s share at any point.

So, the concept works but Socios.com will scale it to a level hitherto unseen.

That’s great, but what are the Features and Benefits of the Platform?

Here are the features and benefits which makes chiliZ and Socios.com a unique platform.

Decision Making Across the Board 

This is the main feature of the platform. The extent of decision making being shared with the fans can be decided by the teams or leagues and the same is made open to voting on the platform. This can range from Jersey design to team expansion. Here is a snapshot.

Partner Flexibility and Ease of Access

The platform provides flexibility to the teams and partners alike. Not only these two major arms (users and partners) but also other partners who would like to use the platform to promote their brands and events.

Mobile Friendly, Real-Time and Ability to work with Other Platforms

A world where most of the life of a user has migrated to his or her mobile, it is only prudent for any solution to be mobile friendly. Socios.com is future ready by being both mobile ready and real-time. What’s more it can integrate with other existing popular platforms making the gamers, esports or sports experience as real as possible. 

Here is an example:

Buying and Selling Fan Tokens

A user having one or more fan tokens may decide to sell of his tokens on Socios.com and this is enabled by the Socios.com marketplace. The selling price can be decided by the seller, however, much like in any marketplace the lowest price attracts more attention. The platform is designed to make the lowest price visible and only when that token is bought will the next lowest price be made visible. A user selling such a fan token will get chiliZ token in return and that can be used by him or her to diversify and invest in other fan tokens of interest.  

Auditability 

The chiliZ token will be emitted on the main Ethereum blockchain while partner specific fan tokens on the permissioned sidechain. Socios.com platform is, therefore, the only means for exchanging chiliZ tokens with fan tokens. Socios.com thus becomes the oracle of all transactions which are stored on a public ledger. This ledger is open for audit by any party wanting to know of the transactions on the chain. 

Revenue Stream for Partners

The micro-fee charged for transactions occurring through the Socios.com platform will be shared with the partners. Once a partner decides to be associated with the platform, the monetary influx due to the tokens being bought by the fans is almost fully passed on to the partner. This ensures that the partner makes money on the platform while effectively engaging the fans! 

This, in a nutshell, is what chiliZ brings to the table for both fans and partners.

Let’s get to know the chiliZ Blockchain Campus too

chiliZ Blockchain Campus is chiliZ’s attempt to connect major industry stakeholders across Asia and Europe with other leading blockchain solutions and entrepreneurs.  

Set up in Malta, the blockchain island, the chiliZ office is a sprawling 2000 sqm with the sole purpose of serving and supporting its members. The payment for services can be done in chiliZ tokens ($CHZ). Since adoption of regulatory framework is a given in Malta, it also provides an opportunity to operate within the permissible guidelines laid down by competent authorities. As such the chiliZ Blockchain Campus is at the forefront of regulation at one end while bringing together entrepreneurs and stakeholders at the other end. 

Here are the details of the amenities provided by chiliZ Blockchain Campus.

Here’s a video of the CEO explaining a bit about the Blockchain Campus: